192 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



SHELL OF STKOMBU8 GIGAS, WITH THE ANIMAL. 



The great Strombus gigas, the " Fountain-shell " of the West Indies, is one of the largest of 

 living shells, weighing sometimes four or five pounds. As it becomes old the animal fills up its apex 

 and spines with solid shell matter. 



Immense quantities are annually imported from the Bahamas for the manufacture of cameos, and 

 for the porcelain works. Prof. T. C. Archer states that 300,000 were brought to Liverpool alone in 



1850. Strombs are common to the West 

 Indies, the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian 

 Ocean, and Pacific. Their favourite resort 

 is on reefs at low water, down to ten. fathoms' 

 depth. Sixty species are known, living, and 

 many species occur fossil in the Miocene 

 Tertiaries of Europe. 



" Though the natives of the Antilles 

 possessed few natural advantages over the 

 inhabitants of the volcanic and coral islands 

 of the Pacific, yet the abundance of large 

 and easily- wrought shells invited their appli- 

 cation to many useful purposes, and accord- 

 ingly, when first visited by the Spaniards, the large marine shells, with which the neighbouring seas 

 abound, constituted an important source for the raw material of their implements and manufactures. 

 The great size and the facility of workmanship of the widely-diffused Pyrulce, Turbinellce, Strombi, 

 and other shells have indeed led to a similar application of them among uncivilised races wherever 

 they abound. Of such, the Caribs made knives, lances, and harpoons, as well as personal ornaments, 

 while the Mollusc itself was sought for and prized as food. In Barbadoes, the Strombiis gigas still 

 furnishes a favourite repast, and numerous weapons and implements made from its shells have been 

 dug up on the island. Plain beads formed from the columellse of Strombus 

 gigas have been found in the ancient graves of Tennessee, Kentucky, and 

 Indiana. The columellse were found worked to a luiiform thickness, 

 pei'forated through the centre, and in nearly all stages of manufacture, 

 to that of perfect beads and links of much prized wampum."* 



In the " Scorpion-shell" (Pteroceras) t the outer lip is produced in 

 the adult shell into several long claws, one of which joins to the spire 

 of the shell and forms the posterior canal. On account of its singular 

 form this has been christened the " Spider," or " Scorpion " shell. 



The genus Rostellaria,^ or the " Spindle-stromb," is marked by having 

 a very much elongated spire and long canals to its shell ; the posterior 

 one runs up the surface of the spire ; the outer lip is sometimes expanded. 

 In the great Kostellaria ampla, from the Middle Eocene of Barton, Hants, 

 the adult animal puts forth a widely-expanded lip, as broad as one's 

 hand, forming an immense "flange," or ear. Five species are found in 

 the Red Sea and on the coasts of Borneo, India, and China. 



FAMILY II. MURICIDJE. 

 The Muricidce are extremely varied in form, having three rows of PTEKOCERAS LAMBIS. 

 many-coloiTred spinous fringes, produced at nearly coincident intervals on 



each whorl of the shell, and becoming longer with age. "Venus' Comb" (Murex tenuispina) is an 

 instance of this, the canal of the shell being produced to twice its length, and fringed with three rows 

 of long and slender spines, slightly curved like the teeth of a harrow. In Murex adustus the spines 

 are extremely picturesque, reminding one of a branching fir-tree. The Murices form only one-third 

 of a whorl annually, ending in a varix. Some species form intermediate varices of lesser extent. 



An abundant form, common on the English coast and around the Channel Isles, is called the 

 " Sting-winkle " by the fishermen, who say it makes round holes in the other shell-fish with its 

 * Daniel Wilson's " Pre-historic Man." f From pteron, a wing; and keras, a horn. J Rosttllum, a little beak. 



